Is 34-year-old Anthony Joshua rolling the dice in a big way by fighting MMA giant Francis Ngannou in March? Maybe. But some fans, call them cynics if you like, say AJ will take the easy money Tyson Fury should have picked up had he at least shown the former UFC heavyweight champ a little respect when he fought him.
Instead of that, and despite his denials, Fury entered the ring in Riyadh almost totally out of shape, with some whispers (shouts) saying the reigning (but not defending) WBC heavyweight champ had only partied hard whilst out in Saudi Arabia and beforehand, with him barely training for Ngannou.
Rest assured, Joshua, 27-3(24), will not make the same mistake. This upcoming fight may tell us a lot – about Joshua and about Ngannou. Firstly, is Ngannou a legit heavyweight boxer, one who can, and maybe will, win a world title? Is Joshua still capable of putting on the kind of star displays he put on when he was taking out Wladimir Klitschko, Alexander Povetkin, and Dillian Whyte?
Will the Joshua-Ngannou fight be a slugfest, with the winner being determined by which big man lands the best shots and at the same time takes the best shot? On paper, and this is taking into account 37-year-old Ngannou’s near-win and unexpectedly fine showing against Fury (this, of course, in Ngannou’s pro boxing debut!), Joshua, a very experienced pro, should wipe the Saudi Arabian floor with a man who is just 0-1 as a pro.
But paper can do odd things: it can burn, it can blow away. It can be used to wipe one’s a**. And, in terms of this crossover fight that everyone on planet Earth will tune in for (yes, you know you will be watching), no real form-book can be put forth, much less believed. In short, anything could happen in this fight. Ngannou, a genuine man-mountain who showed in the Fury fight that he has refined a good deal of boxing skill, does have the look of a man, a fighter, who will really take some shifting.
Maybe AJ has the stuff, the juice, to be able to do the shifting. Again, there’s that word, maybe. Sure, the cynics ARE out there, and maybe Joshua-Ngannou will prove to be either a dud or a mismatch, with AJ winning with ease. But the curiosity factor alone will see us all watching like hawks as these two giants (Fury would perhaps say ‘bodybuilders,’ although he may have, indeed should have, a touch more respect for Ngannou after what happened on October 28) square off.
The way 2024 is shaping up, we could see a great year for the heavyweights. Fury-Oleksandr Usyk, AJ-Ngannou, Deontay Wilder-Zhilei Zhang (maybe), or Zhang-Joseph Parker, as well as Joe Joyce, Daniel Dubois, and Filip Hrgovic likely for big fights. Yes, there is a lot to look forward to. Potentially.
Oh, and by the way, what does happen if Ngannou beats Joshua? Well, we would say goodbye forever to any Joshua-Fury fight, for one. And fight fans, be they boxing lovers and defenders, or be they MMA fans and defenders, would find themselves having one colossal and fierce argument over which sport is the superior of the two, over and which of the respective practitioners are superior!
Let the fun begin.
